Gene Stephenson Quotations

We're in last place now in the league. Twenty-nine years we've never been in this situation in this league at 2-6, I know that. Right now, we're just not very good.

We squandered some opportunities, but some of that may have been their pitching.

We're a pretty good offensive team. We just have to quit wasting a lot of at-bats. Every day there's progress. We're making progress like the turtle, but at least we're going in the right direction.

The pitching was very good for both sides. We made one terrible mistake in the fifth inning and a guy hit one out and that was the difference in the game as far as I'm concerned.

Noah Krol really didn't pitch well today. But he battled through it, and we got hits when we needed to.

I was thankful that somebody wanted me. But all things move forward....

If we don't wake it up, we're going to have more of the same tomorrow.

I don't have any answers. It's like a bad nightmare right now.

I am happy with the personnel, ... We've got the potential to be much, much better than we showed this fall. It's going to boil down to who is most consistent day to day.

For some reason, we're not getting through to the players. And I know they're trying; they're trying hard. You've just got to come and play the game to enjoy and have a good time. They're not.

He hit that fastball about as good as you can hit it. When he hit it, I knew it was gone. I don't know if everybody else did, but I knew. It excited me.

He has played very well defensively at third base. He's swinging the bat well. He can add some punch.

He gives a good account of himself every time he goes out there. I was proud of his performance today.

He's gotten better every time out, and that's really a plus. Today, he was starting to feel comfortable (and) he looked comfortable.

He was ahead in the count most of the time, and he commanded his breaking ball down. I thought he threw with confidence.

Our pitchers set a miserable tone from the outset. We got burned. The amazing thing is we were within two runs of being run-ruled in the sixth inning. I'm really proud of our offensive team. It didn't quit, it didn't give up.

Rob was perfect the whole day except for one inning. Absolutely perfect.

I was very disappointed with Kris Johnson's (outing). I think he was a little shell-shocked when he gave runs because he pitched well in our intra-squad games.

I think he's got real promise, ... He's loose, and he's got a great swing.

We really played pretty well, frankly. There was a lot of enthusiasm on both sides, and it was a good game. I've got to be happy.

We did some good things today. Tyler Weber got a great bunt down in the second inning. We did what we needed to do, and we got the runs home. That was huge.

We set a miserable tone from the start.

We have a lot of depth. We can withstand some injuries and not be devastated.

We knew if we could take care of business against Missouri State and Bradley, we'd be back in the race. Now we're a position where we can control our own destiny, if we play well on the road.

We knew if we could take care of business against Missouri State and Bradley -- and by taking care of business, I mean winning all of them -- we'd be in it. Anything short of that, we couldn't do it. We'd be at least two games out with a lot of teams in front of us.

We just continue to make the same mistakes we've been making for weeks. We're not able to deliver at the plate.

Everybody does. But it's one thing to talk about it, and another thing to do it.

Every day is progress. We're making progress like a turtle, but we're making progress in the right direction, I think.

I've always felt WSU was the premier university in the Missouri Valley Conference. We have the best community. We have the best overall facilities. We should be ranked, in all sports, at the top of our league.

After Kris Johnson, all our pitchers pitched like they were scared. I don't know why. We were quite an embarrassment tonight, to the whole program and the history and tradition of our program.

That's how quick a game can change. We dominated for seven innings, but we sure didn't do much the last two innings. I was disappointed with that, but thankful to get the win.

This is really getting to him. He's never really given his body a chance to heal.

Aaron Shafer continues to be a rock-solid pitcher. We should have been out of the inning in the eighth with nobody on. He deserved to have at least eight complete. That's frustrating, because we need to make that play.

They can go get the ball with anybody and make all the plays.

Not like it used to be. It didn't seem like we were excited -- this whole ballpark just seemed quiet all night to me.

The key to any game offensively is whether you adjust to the pitcher. We didn't adjust to that pitcher at all. We didn't do much of anything offensively.

I mean, we've scored 12 runs in the last five games. It was another weak, anemic night, more of the same. It's just we were never in the game after we couldn't pitch and keep them under control. Once we started giving up runs, letting fly balls drop and throwing to the wrong base, down by six runs seemed like 60.

I'm just glad this weekend is over. We were horrible this weekend. Horrible all three days. Just horrible.

I have no idea how he caught that ball. You can't say enough about Matt Brown and how he plays the outfield. There's nothing about the way he performs that surprises me, but every time he makes a catch like that, it's better than the last one.

I really think Aaron Shafer pitched well and gave us a chance to win the game. I'm very impressed with his demeanor and the way he goes about his business. I think he's an outstanding prospect, and he's going to be a great pitcher for us.

He's still not able to throw his breaking ball, but he did a real good job.

I don't know if we can rally this weekend or not. We need to do something.

I don't know. I've never seen a team fall apart offensively like this team has. We've tried every motivation tactic with them. At this point and time, I'm ready to send them to putt-putt golf or ride a go-cart. They need to do something to clear their mind and get refreshed and at least be happy to come to the ballpark.

He's truly a very remarkable, special athlete. He's an outstanding hitting prospect.

I don't want to take anything away from Creighton, because they do a great job. But everybody's doing a great job on us. Everybody.

He's in a lot of ways behind even the true freshmen.